#DonateCashNotTrash

Today was the first full day of service and the day that many of us were waiting for over the course of the weekend. After dividing the group into two groups of seven. My team, nicknamed The Mighty Ducks, make the journey to Queens to serve at the Hour Children.  This organization works for women who currently or have been incarcerated for nonviolent crimes and their children. We learned from Lisa, the women who gave us first instructions, that in New York some women's prisons have nurseries while allow babies born in prison to stay with their mothers up until 18 months or their mothers time ends. This is important because the bond a baby and mother make in the first year is impossible to recreate and by being separated it hurts both child and mother for the long term. Upon hearing how this system worked our instructor told us that in Iowa/ Des Moines the same is not true. From our area, babies born in prison are removed from their mothers after only three days either to different family members or to foster care. This broke my heart.  After hearing the importance to keeping the mother and child together I can't imagine how hard it must be for mothers to see their newborns taken away from them just because of their current situation.  While I understand that the Iowa faculty might not have the room, funding, or staffing required to replicate what is done here there has to be a better, more dignified way to allow new mothers to be mother.  The emotional toll this must take on the new mothers is unimaginable and I think something, even minor changes would be better st this point. I hope, once I'm back in Des Moines to be able to take time and learn more about what is done both in Iowa and my home state of Missouri and see how we can provide dignity.
     I say dignity because that was not only one of the underlining themes of "Toxic Charity" by Robert Lupton, but also because Hour Children cites it as one of their main missions as well. The area that I spent most of my day was in their food pantry. While this isn't their main mission they do put a lot of resources towards the running of the pantry and working with the community that way. At the pantry we met Alyssa, a young energetic women who is a trained Dietitian, who runs the pantry. After organizing massive amount of bread and eggs that had been delivered on Sunday we were able to ask her questions about her job. As a pantry that allows people to shop like they would any other grocery store, rather than giving out bags of predetermined food, it allows people to shop with dignity and to get the items they like and will eat.  We asked her what she would like to see donated more and immediately she responded "cash". Monetary donations are far more valuable than canned foods most often given during food drives. Along with government subsidies and the ability to buy in bulk from local vendors nonprofits can spread even a dollar into more food that a private citizen could ever buy. This concept was not new to me. Last year I saw a show called "Adam Ruins Everything" where the host busts the myths of commonly believed things such as engagement rings being an innocent sign of love and mouthwash being created to solve bad breath.  In the shows first episode the host advocated that clothing drives, food drives and penny drives are all just empty ways that people think does good but in many times can harm the system. For example by donating food that has been sitting in a cabinet for 5 year and had long past expired this takes away resources the pantry need stocking and sorting the fresh food they get in sometimes everyday. When cans are donated volunteers must sort to see what is expired and what hasn't and then toss anything expired. By seeing someone who works in the industry say the same things advocated on that show it not only reinforces how widespread the problem is but also how important it is. The one thing that I took the most comfort in is the fact there is a real soliton or at the very least a path that we can all work toward and that is #donateCashNotTrash. With this knowledge in mind I will be sure to take that with me in life by not only donating money but educating and encouraging others to do the same.  By being responsible community members and understanding how our efforts affect those who our actions intend to help hopefully more progress can be made in the hunger problem that faces our country today. Of all the issues around poverty that has been discussed thus far food insecurity and food pantry are undoubtedly where my passions are and I hope that we continue to focus resources around that area.  My family has also focused around food and cooking and my mom is a wonderful baker. With food being one of the basic needs of life and how constant it has always been for me I can't really image what must go though some people's minds as they ration items between food pantry stops or when food stamps come out. Anyways today was a great day to start in service and I am excited to see what challenges and new experiences lie ahead of us as a group and for me personally.